Water Resources Act 1963

28 Publication of application for licence

(1) A river authority shall not entertain an application for a licence under this Act to abstract water, other than a licence of right, unless it is accompanied by a copy of a notice in the prescribed form, and by the prescribed evidence—

(a) that the notice has been published in the London Gazette and at least once in each of two successive weeks in one or more newspapers (other than the London Gazette) circulating in the relevant locality, and

(b) where the licence applied for is for abstraction from an inland water, that a copy of the notice has, not later than the date on which it was first published (otherwise than in the London Gazette) as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, been served on any navigation authority, harbour authority or conservancy authority having functions in relation to that inland water at any proposed point of abstraction, and on any internal drainage board within whose district any proposed point of abstraction is situated.

(2) Any such notice as is mentioned in the preceding subsection shall (in addition to any other matters required to be contained therein)—

(a) name a place within the relevant locality where a copy of the application, and of any map, plan or other document submitted with it, will be open to inspection by the public, free of charge, at all reasonable hours during a period specified in the notice in accordance with the next following subsection, and

(b) state that any person may make representations in writing to the river authority with respect to the application at any time before the end of that period.

(3) The period specified in a notice in pursuance of the last preceding subsection shall be a period beginning not earlier than the date on which the notice is first published in a newspaper other than the London Gazette, and ending not less than twenty-eight days from that date and not less than twenty-five days from the date on which the notice is published in the London Gazette; and a river authority shall not determine any such application as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section before the end of the period so specified.

(4) In this section "relevant locality ", in relation to an application for a licence under this Act, means the locality in which any proposed point of abstraction is situated, and " proposed point of abstraction " means a place where a licence, if granted in accordance with the application, would authorise water to be abstracted.